Former Birmingham City boss Chris Hughton told Terry McDermott to join Blues despite the "turmoil" at the club in 2012.

McDermott was asked by Lee Clark to talk to Hughton before Clark applied for the vacant manager's role.

Hughton, who had left Blues to become the Norwich manager, told McDermott that even though the club were experiencing problems off the pitch after Carson Yeung's arrest a year earlier, "good people" were running Birmingham.

Clark then got the job with McDermott as his assistant and Derek Fazackerley his first-team coach.

Hughton, who is now the Brighton manager, faces Blues on Tuesday evening.

Read More

"I was on holiday in Tenerife in the summer of 2012 and saw that Chris Hughton had left Birmingham City to go to Norwich City," recalled McDermott, writing in his autobiography, Terry McDermott Living For The Moment.

"There was turmoil at the time at Birmingham with the owner Carson Yeung having his assets frozen and being in trouble with the football authorities. Even so, Lee fancied the job and asked me to give Chris Hughton a ring. Chris told me that despite all that was going on, there were good people running Birmingham. I asked if he could put in a good word for Lee, which he did, and he was given an interview, which went very well.

"When I got back to England, Lee rang me to say that he felt he had a good chance of getting the job. Sure enough a couple of days later it was his and he asked me to join him along with Derek Fazackerley, who was part of the Huddersfield staff.

"We all had a meeting in a room overlooking the St. Andrew’s pitch and quickly had our contracts sorted. With Carson Yeung unable to come to England – he was later sent to prison – it was his right-hand man Peter Pannu who was running the show.

Read More

"Despite the club having financial problems, the atmosphere amongst the workforce was good. There was a transfer embargo in place which was going to make it more difficult but we were all up for the challenge, especially Lee, who felt he had things to prove.

"Lee used the loan system brilliantly. We brought in players from Manchester United, Federico Macheda, Jesse Lingard and Tyler Blackett. Macheda ended up scoring a few goals for us while Jesse’s start was incredible. He scored all four goals when we beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-1. No-one did us more favours during that time than Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford."